Survey work assesses Solway cockle stocks

The area was once home to thriving commercial cockle fishing

A survey is being carried out to assess cockle stocks on a once-thriving fishery in the south of Scotland.

At their peak in the early 1990s, more than 5,000 tonnes a year - worth about £5m - were taken from the beds on the Solway Coast.

However, dwindling stocks saw a licensing system introduced and a full prohibition order in 2011.

Studies will take place this year and next year to see if levels have recovered since then.

Cockles have been commercially gathered in the area periodically since the late 1980s.

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Dwindling stocks saw the fishery shut in 2002 but it reopened again four years later when a licensing system was introduced.

However, subject to very limited exceptions, no licences were issued from the end of the 2007/08 season and a full prohibition order was put in place in 2011.

The last full survey of its stock took place in 2015.

Now SeaScope Fisheries Research Ltd - in partnership with Fruits of the Sea, University of Glasgow and Marine Scotland Science - has been awarded £288,972 by the Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme to carry out research.

It is hoped cockles from densely populated beds could be transferred to less dense ones

It will undertake two full stock surveys in 2023 and 2024.

The first one will take place between Annan and Wigtown Bay over the next three weeks either on foot or using quad bikes.

It is hoped the results can identify beds which might be used in a "relaying trial" in the area.

It would evaluate whether moving cockles from densely populated to less dense areas would improve growth rates and reduce density-dependent mortality rates.

The stock surveys and experimental trials will allow an "accurate assessment of the state of the stocks to be made" and a view taken on the potential of reopening the beds.